How Important Is Customer Experience As It Relates To Your Web Site?

   We all know the drill.  We try to attract new customers, users, followers, drones, or whatever the new term may be this week, to our sites so we can get input to improve our products which will help to expand our reach.  Even a blogger who sells nothing but their own thoughts and ideas enjoys knowing they have at least a smidgen of an impact on their readers’ lives.  This is a small piece of the driving force behind customer experience management (CXM or CEM) which is the grand total of all the experiences a customer has with a brand’s goods and services over the duration of their involvement with the company.  This ranges from the customer’s take on advertisement, customer service, the look and feel of the market space (whether a brick and mortar facility, or web space), the purchase, feel, and use of the product over its lifetime.

All of these factors contribute to the bottom line:  will your customer come back?  Will your design truly inspire and move your customers to say “Hey, these folks really care about my needs and will work hard to satisfy them,” or will they say “They’re just trying to make a buck and will feed me a line to slide me any run of the mill design.”  According to the site, Customer Experience Matters, the number one customer experience mistake is faking executive commitment.   Most companies and organizations, whether they are big or small, are apt to resist change. Improving customer experience requires changes and executive commitment is required to overcome cultural norms.  Basically, when the boss buys in to a philosophy, it makes the transition much smoother for the rest of the force to follow.  Most web design and social networking ventures are already on the cutting edge of the customer experience wave, or so you would think, so it seems it would be much easier to improve their products, streamline their business measures, and therefore satisfy their customers.  According to some customers, other companies have taken it to an extreme by analyzing all products bought, sites visited, and places traveled in order to discover exactly what they want.  Unfortunately, they only succeeded in spooking their clientele and firing up the mojos of the many conspiracy theorists.

So what type of experience will you provide your customer?  Will they enjoy the customer service and pricing scheme of their hosted web sites?  Do they enjoy communicating online, or do they prefer the personal touch of a phone call to see how they’re doing?  When they visit your site, is it easily navigable or do they have to hunt for the information they require?  Let us know what some of your thoughts/issues have been with dealing with the best/worst/most demanding customers and how you dealt with them.

See also related articles:

• Priorities – Customer Experience, Web Design, and the New iPad (Cirrus Blog)
• Creating an Optimal Customer Experience (.Net Magazine)